


Long Lost

by miera



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Sentient Atlantis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 20:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John's connection with Atlantis is strong, but may not actually be the strongest of the expedition team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Lost

John didn't notice it at first. In his defense, the first 48 hours they were in Atlantis are a complete mess and he barely had one second in all of that to breathe, let alone really examine the situation. So it took a few days for him to notice the feeling. 

Joy. Relief. Eagerness. Like an ever-present hum in his head. 

He decided it was the adrenalin from exploring a completely alien city that had been dormant for ten thousand years. 

*****

Only after Beckett's therapy worked on Rodney does John really notice the lights. Rodney's got the artificial genetic markers so he can make the Ancient tech work, but it never works quite as well for him as it does for John. There's a lag, for lack of a better word. Atlantis responded to John immediately and without hesitation. It was less certain about Rodney.

John wondered if it was the fact that it wasn't a natural ATA gene, but Beckett had the same problem with the jumpers or the control chair. 

But not in the infirmary. The Ancient medical tech was as smooth and responsive to Beckett there as Jumper One was for John. 

*****

The first time he thought of Dr. Weir as "Elizabeth" - in his own head although not aloud - is when he walked into her office expecting her to be glowing from getting the gene therapy and being able to interact with Atlantis like he did. Instead she had her head propped up on one hand and was staring blankly at her tablet. He didn't say anything, just grumbled excessively about McKay for a bit until she gave him that exasperated/amused look she had started to give him frequently. 

The lights had been slower that day. The hum in his head is subdued. A few weeks later, when he and Elizabeth are arguing, the lights slowed down again and he got a headache. He didn't put that together until years later.

*****

He never mentioned the hum or the feeling of not being quite alone, like someone was walking around behind him, but no matter how fast he looked over his shoulder, there was nothing to see. It got stronger over time, but he didn't want to end up in Heightmeyer's office, or worse. More than once he woke up feeling like someone had shaken him awake, to discover some new crisis had occurred. 

The day he had to carry Elizabeth to the infirmary, after watching her faint in her office, was the first time the doors opened before he even approached them. While Carson battled the damned nanites in her system, Chuck reported a bunch of weird glitches going on around the city, and the hum in his head was like a bass drum pounding against his skull. That was the point when he started to wonder. 

*****

After Elizabeth sacrificed herself to save them, the feeling in his head changed. It dimmed. The lights weren't so bright, the controls didn't react as fast as they had, although Zelenka - the only person John mentioned it to - swore the equipment all checked out as normal. 

His dreams were filled with the lab and the empty cryogenic chamber where they'd found Elizabeth's other self. 

Of course. 

*****

Woolsey is yelling at John's back but he ignores it, tearing up the staircase toward the jumper bay, just like he had during the siege, only this time Elizabeth is out there waiting. An entire Wraith armada might get in his way but John is not stopping, not this time. 

Ronon and Rodney duck into the jumper the second before John closes the door. Teyla is hugely pregnant right now and John won't put her in danger on a rescue mission, but she did her part. Teyla brought back their first real lead of Elizabeth's whereabouts.

Jumper One lights up like a Christmas tree. The bay doors open before John's brain can complete the instruction, and the gate is already firing up. 

He thinks about Elizabeth, tries to clear his mind to focus only on this mission and put everything else aside, but he swears he can hear it like someone whispering from behind him, 

_"Bring her home."_


End file.
